Getting Ready for June 11 and the Beautiful Game

World Cup Season is here!

The above video is K'Naan's "Waving Flag." Feel free to listen to it while you read a post about the beautiful game!

The World Cup starts this Friday. Our household is getting ready for the big event. It is a month long. Do you realize that is longer than the Olympics? Some of the things that Charles has been doing to get ready include:

• Playing soccer twice a week. His feet were really hurting and he couldn't figure out why. He took apart his shoes and found that the part that you screw the cleats into was broken into several pieces. Those shoes lasted a year. He got them last year for his birthday so this year he got some new ones.
• emailing everyone that he think might be interested to invite them to be in his group for the ESPN bracket. I have overheard him telling one of his friends on the phone who, I am guessing wasn't interested, "I will send it to you anyway."
• planing and scheming: mostly with our friend Matt. They are figuring out what games must be watched in full and figuring out when to watch them. Matt and his wife Aimee (who will probably keep me sane this month!) just moved in to a cute new house. Matt justified getting satellite and DVR, "because Charles needs it!" Also, I heard Charles tell Matt regarding going over to their house to watch some games, "we will need to come during the week." Notice, it is a statement and not a question. I am guessing Matt didn't notice that.
• playing K'naan's "Waving Flag" whenever possible. This is not the official World Cup Theme song, but somehow there is a lot of confusion about that. The official song is actually Shakira's "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)" I like "Waving Flag" better. Charles informed me that it was the most played song on the radio in Switzerland for several months. It is my new ringtone.
  
• Getting Henri's soccer jerseys ready for wearing. We recently got a "I love Soccer" onesie from Grandmaman Isabelle to expand the section of his wardrobe that will be suitable to wear for the next month!
• Watching endless youtube videos that show "the best of" goals in history. He gets excited when he sees one that he remembers watching. He has been showing me on famous goals that I should, as his wife, be informed about. He tells me that he gets "chills" from watching these goals!

And here is a boy who claims to like the World Cup as much as I like Le Tour de France or the Olympics "times one hundred!" I don't know about that, but he is really excited!

I would like to finish the post with a story about how soccer really is an important part of Charles' life. A few weeks ago we had a ward picnic at a park that we had never been to. It was in a really big, beautiful park with a road that wound through it. I had a map of where our ward was meeting and was looking down at it trying to figure out where to go while Charles was driving. He started turning into a parking lot. This confused me because I was pretty sure we weren't that close to where we were supposed to be going. When I looked up I saw a group of guys playing soccer. I asked Charles, "where are you going?" He had a confused look on his face and then a look of realization came over his face and he replied, "Oh, sorry." Basically, he had seen some soccer going on and had forgotten what we were doing and automatically turned towards the ball. Needless to say, he is really excited to watch the celebration of the beautiful game!